Pune: Officials from Solid Waste Management Department using outsider’s influence on seniors to award tender to civil contractor

Pune: The Solid Waste Management Department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is using influence from ‘outside’ to award a garbage-processing contract to a civil contractor.

In the backdrop of the Water Supply Department disqualifying a deserving bid for their contract, the Solid Waste Management Department is using ‘outside’ influence on their seniors to remove the condition of an ‘experience in garbage processing’ for granting te tender.

Therefore, allegations are being levelled against the Solid Waste Management Department that it is more interested in ‘cleaning’ the coffers of the PMC rather than keeping the city clean.

The department recently floated the Rs 100-crore tender to process the remaining garbage at the Uruli Devachi depot. The earlier work contract expired in February 2024. According to a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, around 21 lakh tonne solid waste has been processed through biomining and heaps of garbage over some acres of area have been removed. The tribunal welcomed the step and further ordered it to process the remaining 10 lakh tonne garbage.

The department started the tender process, but only for 2.5 lakh tonne, before the earlier contract expired in February.

The then Municipal Commissioner visited the depot and found that over 10 tonne garbage needed to be processed. Moreover, fresh garbage was also being dumped there by the department. He immediately acted against a junior engineer and instructed to float a tender for the remaining solid waste.

The two tenders, for a 75-tonne processing capacity unit each, at Ramtekdi and Handewadi, have been okayed. A condition of making refuse derived fuel (RDF) was mandatory for bidding the tenders for both the units. It has been allegedly ensured the Ramtekdi tender went to a contractor and political partner favoured by a Thane-based politician. The work order was issued the next day after the tender was approved.

Some newly appointed officers in the department have become overcautious after what they went through during the process of granting the Ramtekdi contract. Hence, the terms and conditions for the Devachi Uruli garbage processing have been made stringent. Besides, the RDF condition, bid capacity and other conditions, which are applied by other civic bodies in the State and other States as well as the terms and conditions applied by the Central government have also been included in the Rs 100-crore tender.

A Rs 844 per tonne rate has been estimated. Assuming the remaining solid waste of around 10 lakh tonne, Rs 84 crore expenditure is expected. However, the favoured contractors of the department do not have the RDF experience and they cannot qualify for the tender. Now, the department is using ‘outside’ influence to remove the condition so that favoured civil contractors or those who carry out road work can get the work order. This has given rise to discussions about the tender not only among officials from other departments but also from the Solid Waste Department.

Recently, a three-year repair and maintenance tender was floated for the Warje Water Supply Centre Phase 1 and 2. A bid made by a Marathi businessman, who has the experience in West Bengal, qualified. But the bid was disqualified later on the pretext that the bidder did not have sufficient experience of the work. The businessman had, in fact, attached necessary proof, along with the bid. Therefore, doubts have been raised about the decision not to grant the contract to the qualified bidder. However, the Water Supply Department decided to float the tender again and took action against the junior engineer, who scrutinised the cancelled bid. Thus, making him a scapegoat.

In the backdrop of the styles of functioning of the two departments of the civic body, it remains to be seen whether the civic chief would relax the RDF condition for the biomining tender.

This was revealed by an engineer in the Solid Waste Department.